The mayor of Zagreb and coordinator of the left-green party Mozemo, Tomislav Tomasevic, said on Tuesday that the fact that HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic is leading the party's list of candidates for the European elections is a sign of weakness and insecurity.

“It is unbelievable that someone who claims he still wants to be prime minister is leading his party’s list of candidates for the European elections and did not do so five years ago,” Tomasevic said at a press conference, pointing out that the top candidate on the Mozemo party’s list of candidates should be a person who will actually serve a term in the European Parliament, as this would only be fair to the voters.

As for the formation of the new government, Tomasevic said that it will be up to the SDP, the opposition party with the most parliamentary seats won, to hold bilateral talks on the composition of the parliament.

The SDP won the most seats of all the parties that were in opposition in the last parliament. They have proposed to constitute the parliament and appoint the speaker and we have supported its proposal, he said.

Mozemo believes that this would be a good move as the parliament can make certain decisions and pass laws, such as the replacement of State Attorney-General Ivan Turudic and the cancellation of the ‘Lex AP’, leaving the options of a minority government and a caretaker government open for later, Tomasevic said.

“We expect the president of the parliament to be from the SDP, as they won the most seats. This is a political custom and we expect the other parties that were in opposition and said they would not co-operate with the HDZ at any cost to state their position. But they might change their minds.”

Tomasevic added that Mozemo is holding daily bilateral talks with the SDP and hopes that the SDP’s initiative will be successful.

“Even if there were new elections and a caretaker government was appointed, this would mean that the HDZ would not be able to use government resources and could not run for election from this position, which is also not unimportant,” he said.